Ethan and Ehlana:
Congratulations, Doug, Alicia, and the Warren and Jennings clans – it’s a girl! Jessica Emily Warren is the newest member of our town; Mom and daughter are doing well; and their families are celebrating – though Alicia and Jessica are likely sleeping instead of partying tonight! ;^)
Compared to adding new members to a family, our day has been uneventful, but we were ready for a quiet day after our Quarry Lake adventures and a very late night last night. We worked on chores this morning after packing up the campground – getting our normal weekend chores finished by lunchtime thanks to help from most of our visiting cousins. A casual play afternoon started with a picnic lunch; we went for a long bike ride; and stopped for a couple of swim breaks. The cousins are split up again tonight among our aunts, uncles, and grandparents; and we don’t have any guests with us again tonight because Naomi and Aiden are with their own families tonight and have had other plans.
We weren’t on our own for dinner tonight, but our family and guests were split up for that meal too; and we were with the Everetts for that meal mostly because Jayden is with them tonight. While we enjoyed that meal with them; we came home shortly after the clean-up was done; and we’ve had a quiet night since then. We’re also all tired; going to bed early is an option; and that’s what we’re going to do very soon.
Before we go there, we need to include news of the highlights from yesterday. Our Quarry Lake fun began with biking the trails there for about a quarter of our group; we had a lot of play time in and around the lakes; and took turns this afternoon on the rock wall, zip line, and playing other games. Our lunch picnic included a couple of gifts for Brianna to open, but she got most of her gifts back at home after the barbeque dinner – which is why the dinner clean-up didn’t wrap up until we were nearly ready to start the campfire. We didn’t even sit down for dinner until six-thirty or so; it took more than an hour to get everyone fed and then move on to the birthday dessert and the rest of the usual fun; and then the younger kids were dunked in the river to clean them up before the campfire.
Brianna had her cousins and friends in the front row around the campfires – and there were two of them to have enough fireside options for the major gang we had with us for that part of the party. Naomi, Ehlana, Aiden, and I were drafted for some of the campfire music, so that was a highlight of our day; and even most of the younger kids stayed up very late last night. The campfire didn’t get put out by the teens until after one o’clock, but we had most of the kids in their tents by midnight. There wasn’t any official co-ed camping – including for us, but there was some co-ed cuddle time in the girls’ tent while Naomi and Ehlana were trying to get Brianna off to sleep. When Aiden, Jayden, and I headed for our tent at a bit after one o’clock, that wasn’t the end of our night, but we were mostly just still awake because of the ongoing camping ‘fun’ that Zack and Eli led; and we left it up to the teens to deal with the attempts to annoy Brianna and the other girls. We did eventually get to sleep, but only ended up with about four or five hours of nap time; and that has a lot to do with why we really do want to get some extra sleep tonight.
Before we wrap this up and do that; let’s add in a couple of news items from elsewhere in the world. We should begin that with the football news for Michael and Tim. They’re working out at their college team’s training camp; and they can thank Cassie for helping them out with daily healing that gives them serious advantages over their wide receiver competitors. Cassie is also very busy with all of her T.A. work and Master’s degree studies; so we’re definitely having more fun than she is while working day and night.
Finally, for today, we want to do a mini pandemic update. Contrary to what sometimes seems to be popular belief, the pandemic is not over, and while there continues to be good news and improvements; it is still far too early to declare any victories. For this week, passing the milestone of four-million confirmed worldwide deaths hasn’t even gotten any major news attention. We’re also still seeing daily new deaths averaging nine to ten thousand and millions of new cases per week; so it seems weird to us that those numbers aren’t still alarming when the first lockdowns and other restrictions began back when there were still only hundreds or thousands of new cases per day. Finally, the most-worrying data we’re seeing in the increases in new cases in countries that should have been reaching herd immunity, but it is too-soon to know why that’s happening or whether the vaccines are going to continue to work either long-term or on Covid variants.
Okay, that’s enough for tonight. We could be in for a wet weekend, but we’ll let you know how that goes for us with the next couple of updates; and there are alternate entertainment plans if we do end up with a couple of indoor days. Stay tuned or flip digital pages to read all about that, but we need to rest up to be ready for those adventures; so, until next time...
...this is Ethan and Ehlana Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!
